Spielberg – Formula One has returned to Europe, with all the teams preparing for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix. At Spielberg, the morning sun gave way to clouds and a burst of rain in the afternoon. Scuderia Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel look ahead to the weekend after the well-publicised events in Azerbaijan.“At the beginning of this week, I went to Paris to speak with the FIA and talk about what happened. Now we are here to move on and focus on the race. It is never easy to get everything right and to come out on top. I don’t think this has been a terrible week, but then it depends on what happens for the rest of it…”.

Kimi seems to be keen on the 4.3 km Austrian circuit: “I like the layout of this track: it doesn’t have many corners, so the lap time is quite short and everybody is quite close in qualifying. It’s not easy to make predictions for the weekend, even if, in the past this track has been quite good for us but obviously, with the new rule changes, you never know. I think that our car should be fine, we have been pretty strong everywhere so far. We are quite confident that wherever we go and in whatever conditions we can be up there. The end result obviously depends on many things, we’ll see how it goes but we should be ok”.http://formula1.ferrari.com/en/austrian-...-this-race-now/

Formula One has returned to Europe, with all the teams preparing for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place this weekend on the Red Bull Ring circuit in Spielberg. Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen finished the race in third place last season, very close to Max Verstappen who came in second for Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer and this year Kimi will hope to further improve on the podium, as the Finnish driver seems to be keen on the 4.3 km Austrian circuit:

“I like the layout of this track: it doesn’t have many corners, so the lap time is quite short and everybody is quite close in qualifying. It is not easy to make predictions for the weekend, even if, in the past this track has been quite good for us but obviously, with the new rule changes, you never know. I think that our car should be fine, we have been pretty strong everywhere so far. We are quite confident that wherever we go and in whatever conditions we can be up there. The end result obviously depends on many things, we’ll see how it goes but we should be ok.” – Kimi explains, as reported by the Italian media on Thursday.

The debate regarding Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel‘s clash in Azerbaijan two weeks ago was the focus of media attention in recent days, but Kimi Raikkonen says he has “zero interest” in getting involved: “I have zero interest in getting into it. Obviously Seb got penalised in the race, he lost positions and nothing has happened since then. Obviously you go and talk to them. I have nothing to add or say, absolutely zero to do with me. There were some penalties, fair enough, mistakes have been done, and we go forward.”

The bigger clash of concern for Kimi in Baku was between himself and Valtteri Bottas at the start, with the Mercedes driver avoiding a penalty for hitting his compatriot who was left with damage. Despite being exasperated by the lack of penalty during the race, Raikkonen was more relaxed about the incident on Thursday, having accepted his fate and moved on: “It cost us a lot of points in the last race and it wasn’t really our fault. But that’s how it goes sometimes and it has happened a few times, sometimes my fault, sometimes his fault. It would be better if it would be at the other end of the starting grid. That’s what happened in the last race, right at the start making our race very difficult, after a good start. It turned even worse later, again completely out of our hands, but situations like that happen some times.” – Kimi concluded.

Spielberg – A short burst of rain between P1 and P2 did not prevent Scuderia Ferrari drivers from going through their planned programme, as the afternoon session stayed dry throughout. Sebastian ended up P2 and Kimi P6 in a session where familiarisation was more crucial than lap times. “Today we did a lot of laps and learnt a lot about the car,” commented Seb. “We had a good feel with it and that is what we need. So, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. We understood the problems we had in Baku, but here it’s completely different. The weather and the asphalt temperature are not the same as they were there. Today it is still difficult to judge, but the car is very good and we made some improvements. We proceed step by step; tomorrow we’ll have another free practice session and then we’ll see”.

Kimi had a slightly more troublesome day, but in the end he was not worried about the remainder of the weekend: “It was a very normal day, trying different solutions and seeing how they went. We struggled a bit with some things, but we know what is going on and we should be able to fix it. It was one of those Fridays, not great and not bad either. Obviously it could have been a bit better and straightforward, but it’s only the first day of practice. I don’t think it will be very difficult with tires as long as we do the normal things; it’s a very similar story as any other race. Now we have to go through everything and improve for tomorrow”.

Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne has indicated that Kimi Raikkonen needs to get his season in gear and do more for the team as contract negotiations for 2018 pick up pace.

"I think Kimi has got to show a higher level of commitment to the process," he told reporters at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

"There are days when I think he's a bit of a laggard, but we'll see. I am going to talk to him today, we'll see what happens."

Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion with Ferrari, is out of contract at the end of the season and has not won a race since he was with Lotus in 2013.

While four times champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, also out of contract at the end of the year, has won three of eight races and leads the championship by 14 points from Mercedes Lewis Hamilton, the Finn is fifth overall.

Raikkonen's best result of the season was second in Monaco in May.

Vettel, with 153 points, has scored more than twice as many as Raikkonen (73).

VERY SATISFIED

Marchionne said he was very satisfied with the team's performance, after a dismal 2016 season in which they failed to win a race, and also with Vettel despite the German's recent 'road rage' controversy with Britain's Hamilton.

"It's not perfect, I think we still left a lot of potential gains on the track. We can make that difference up. I still think that Mercedes has a slight edge over us," said the Italian.

"I am happy with what Sebastian is doing, just in case anybody is wondering."

Vettel was handed a 10 seconds stop-and-go penalty during the race in Azerbaijan last month for deliberately banging wheels with Hamilton while they were behind the safety car.

The German was then summoned to a hearing at the sport's governing FIA (International Automobile Federation) in Paris last Monday, which decided to take no further action after Vettel apologised and accepted full responsibility.

It was the second time in a matter of months that Vettel faced possible sanction for his on-track behaviour, with the Ferrari driver warned in Mexico for abusing race director Charlie Whiting over the team radio.

FIA president Jean Todt said on Saturday that the Ferrari driver would face "very severe consequences" if there were any further such incidents.(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)

Kimi Raikkonen says he is doing his maximum to get better results in Formula 1 following comments from Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne saying he was a "laggard".

Marchionne told reporters at the Red Bull Ring that Raikkonen needed to show a "higher level of commitment", having been overshadowed by teammate Sebastian Vettel so far this year.

The German has won three races and leads the championship with 171 points, while Raikkonen is on 83 down in fifth position.

"I think Kimi has got to show a higher level of commitment to the process," Marchionne was quoted as saying by Reuters before the start of the Austrian Grand Prix, where Vettel was second and the Finn finished 20 seconds behind in fifth.

"There are days when I think he's a bit of a laggard, but we'll see," the Italian added.

Raikkonen's contract with Ferrari expires at the end of the year and several drivers have been linked to the second seat at the Maranello squad.

Asked about Marchionne's comments, the 2007 world champion insisted he is trying as hard as possible to get his season back on track.

"Obviously I want to do well," Raikkonen said. "My team wants to do well, and I can only do the best that I can. It's not like I'm not trying.

"Unfortunately it's not been very straightforward sometimes, but that's part of the plan and we keep pushing and I'm sure things will work out better."

I heard the interviews to Marchionne before and after the race and honestly he didn't seem so hard with Kimi like described by the media. On the contrary, to me he defended him well, and I'm not a supporter of Marchionne.